Thursday, 27 December 2012

Growing up I always had a lot of material things, be it clothes, toys, games. When I moved out on my own a couple of years ago, I realised exactly how much stuff I had accumulated over the years, without throwing much stuff out.

When I moved into my own place I only brought the things I really needed but still didn't throw out the old stuff. Due to my parents house being quite large with lots of storage, my stuff just stayed there. Even after the last couple of years I still didn't bother going through everything. I can say that all of this stuff, apart from the few collectible things, will be thrown out and given away.

As for the stuff that I have accumulated since I moved out, I did build up stuff but nothing that wasn't used, and the bulk of this stuff is DVDs, books and clothes. In the back of my mind I knew I had a lot of things but I didn't want to do anything about it. That changed when I saw a film called Up In The Air.

George Clooney plays the main character, Ryan Bingham, who travels around America for his job with everything he owns in a suitcase. On the very few days he has off, he goes home to what is a small cheap apartment that has just the essentials. On the side he performs presentations titled 'Whats In Your Backpack?'. This presentation is to help people de-clutter their life and make them realise they don't need everything that they own. This was my first insight into minimalism.

I began looking up minimalism and started to slowly understand what is was and why people led this lifestyle. It made me realise a lot of things, the first being that I did not need everything that I owned at all, and living with the fewest of things that can make you happy is the way to go.

I know for myself, that having all that stuff was like some kind of security, something to hold onto and by keeping them, I keep the memories. But now it's Christmas, a time when people give each other gifts. So I decided that all my stuff that has been sitting at home collecting dust for the last couple of years, as I said above, can be given away.

My transition into minimalism had been a slow one but I have been making progress. This started with my clothes. I first want to say, over the last 2 years I have lost a lot of weight which I why I had so many clothes to begin with. Some clothes were too big, some still fit but never the less I had to buy more clothes that fitted me better, hence an over collection. I began looking up articles online to find what clothes would make up a good wardrobe but one that was not too big.

So I set about giving clothes that didn't fit, didn't want or not worn in a good while to my Dad. I bought a few new things but was careful about what I bought. Due to money restrictions I bought as cheap I could whilst making sure I wasn't buying rubbish. I also made sure that what I bought had multiple uses. This was to minimise the size of my wardrobe and making use of what I had. This part of my transition is on going but almost complete. I still have more clothes than I would like/need but I will amend this soon.

I know have a nice variety of clothes for a number of different occasions, and all was acquired for not that much money as I took some tips from my research and bought items that can be used to compliment a number of different pieces of clothing.

So this is the first part of my new journey, hopefully it is one that will educate and discipline me in many things and open my eyes more than they already are to the fact that I do not need everything that I own, and everything I want.